Traditionally, when a room is finished within a building, molding is sometimes applied around the room adjacent the juncture between the ceiling and the walls and/or adjacent the juncture between the floor and the walls. The molding adjacent the ceiling is generally referred to as crown molding, while the molding adjacent the floor is generally referred to as baseboard molding. Molding is installed along a wall, and the different pieces of molding meet in the corners of the room to provide a seemingly endless border around the ceiling and floor of the room.
Accordingly, for aesthetic purposes it is desirable that the pieces of molding meet at each corner juncture without a seam so as to provide a seemingly continuous, unbroken boundary of molding. Making two pieces of molding match up without a seam is difficult because in most instances, molding has an ornate exposed surface which includes a variety of projections, curves and indentations. One proposed way of eliminating the seam is to miter or cut the molding pieces at a particular angle which will allow two pieces to meet at a corner juncture and form a continuous structure. For example, a corner piece of molding will be mitered at 45.degree. for a 90.degree. room corner. However, it is very difficult to miter the molding so that there is an exact fit, and if the mitering is not exactly precise, a seam or crack appears and ruins the continuous look of the finished molding. Seamless mitering is especially difficult when the molding is tilted forward away from the wall, as crown molding often is.
Currently the most popular technique for affixing separate pieces of molding together in the corner juncture of a room is coping. Coping involves making a precise cut along one end of a piece of molding so that the cut end follows the unique projections, curves and indentations of the adjacent piece of corner molding. Proper coping of a piece of molding produces an almost perfect match at the corner juncture, and thereby yields an aesthetically pleasing continuous border structure around a room. Coping a piece of molding has traditionally required using a coping saw which is specially formed for the task of coping. A coping saw is a hand saw with a very narrow blade that is held under tension in a shaped frame and is used for cutting curves in wood.
However, coping with a traditional coping saw is a slow, arduous, and labor intensive task. The manual sawing takes place with the blade generally at an angle. Furthermore, the saw blade must be guided around various curves, notches and protrusions. The operator saws back and forth being careful to maintain and follow the proper molding curves necessary to make the two corner pieces of molding match. While it takes only seconds to miter a piece of molding with available miter boxes, depending upon the size of the molding, it takes approximately one minute to as long as ten minutes to cope the molding piece with a traditional coping saw. To further frustrate the coping process, homeowners are requesting the use of more and more hardwoods for their molding, thus making coping an even more difficult, physical and time-consuming job. As may be appreciated, the increased time spent coping a piece of wood decreases the production of the woodworker not only by making the molding installation process take longer, but also by physically tiring the woodworker such that his work is slowed down by simple exhaustion.
There have been attempts in the prior art to ease the task of coping. For example, the patent of Adomatis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,464 discloses a battery operated coping saw. The Adomatis coping saw utilizes a motor to drive a blade which reciprocates back and forth in a sawing motion. However, while such a design might seemingly reduce the continuous physical sawing motion normally required to cut with a coping saw, such a coping saw is not very useful from a practical standpoint. Coping is a very precise and tedious operation often requiring small, precise cuts around the various curves and protrusions of a piece of molding. The saw of Adomatis has a tendency to shake and jerk as it cuts because of the back and forth motion of the blade. This shaking tends to make precision cutting difficult and throws the blade out of line with the precise curves, which must be followed to accurately cope a piece of molding. Furthermore, the saw is difficult to even start on a piece of molding because of the shaking and jerking motion of the moving blade. As may be appreciated, starting the path of a coping saw into the correct curve line is a critical part of proper coping.
The prior art also discloses hand-held or portable powered sawing mechanisms. For example, the patent of Greitzer, U.S. Pat. No. 1,955,063 discloses such a portable power saw; however, the Greitzer saw is designed to accomplish very gross, straight cuts such as ripsaw work, crosscut work, metal cutting and the severing of bones in meat cutting. Because of the rigorous cutting action of the saw, the blade cannot be guided gently and precisely over a piece of molding. The Greitzer saw, typical of the prior art band saws is much too forceful and is not designed for the delicate cutting work involved with coping.
The structures and frames of the other various prior art saws are also designed to make straight cuts on large pieces of wood as opposed to the delicate curved cuts involved with coping. The saw of Niksich, U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,894 has a rigorous cutting action and requires two hands to operate and does not leave a hand free to hold and guide a piece of molding. Similarly, the saws of Meighan, U.S. Pat. No. 1,584,630; Crosby, U.S. Pat. No. 2,604,910; Hoard, U.S. Pat. No. 2,690,774 and Strzalka, U.S. Pat. No. 4,413,414 all require two hands to properly operate and manipulate the saw. When making straight cuts in large bulk pieces of wood for which these saws are designed, the pieces of wood are often held by a clamp or are propped up between two sawhorses and thus do not require the operator to hold the wood while sawing. However, coping is very precise and a preferable coping method is to have one hand steadying or manipulating the molding piece while the saw is manipulated around the various curves of the molding to cope the piece.
Consequently, there is a need for a coping saw which does not require the slow and tiresome physical sawing procedure of a traditional manual coping saw. There is further a need for a coping saw which can quickly and easily make precise cuts around any curves, notches and protrusions which are found on a piece of molding. There is still a further need for a coping saw which is easy to start in the proper cutting direction in a piece of molding and thereafter easily and precisely manipulated around the various molding curves to complete the coping process.